Reluctant Exploration
by scifiromance
Summary: Seven of Nine and Chakotay's first away mission together was something neither really wanted to experience, but when they were pushed into it they did learn a great deal about themselves, and each other... Extended and additional C/7 scenes for 'Demon' S04x24.
1. Chapter 1

**A/n: I don't own Star Trek: Voyager, but this story is set during the episode 'Demon' S04xE24.  
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><p>Chakotay hated grey mode. They hadn't had to endure these dangerously low deuterium levels more than twice before over their four year journey, which he supposed could be considered miraculous, but right now, when they were deeper into the doldrums of power deprivation than they'd ever been before, being conscious of Voyager's relative good fortune up to this point didn't make him feel any better. It only took one sorry twist of fate to wipe them off this quadrant after all. Another factor adding to his bad mood, other than the general atmosphere of anxiety, was the thought that the replicators were off-line. Not because <em>he <em>had a particular craving for anything, though he did hope Neelix at least served a breakfast free of leola root the next morning, but because the Captain would. Oh, she was alright for now, driven on by the search and the caffeine still in her system, but within a couple of days withdrawal would set in, and he'd rather deal with a power starved Voyager than a cold turkey Kathryn Janeway any day. At least she was still clearly delegating tasks, and he had reasons to be grateful for that, this time it was Tuvok who'd been handed the job of dragging people out of their quarters to preserve power. Not that his job for the morning, prepping the shuttle crafts and emergency escape pods for an increasingly possible evacuation, and then drawing up the lists of who was to be assigned to each little lifeboat that would be cast into the dead calm of space, was much fun either.

And then there was the necessarily dim lighting. He'd just managed to avoid several near collisions with his haggard crewmates already today. He'd had his vision corrected as a child, but in this demi-darkness he had to squint hard just to read consoles or PADDs. The resulting migraine had intensified when he'd read, with difficulty, from his console on the Bridge that Astrometrics was still running. Sometimes he wondered if Seven of Nine had deliberately designed her lab to covertly block out the comm. line from the Bridge. It seemed that if an order was good enough for her to follow, then it deserved a personal visit from him to reiterate it. Kathryn didn't have this problem with her, but then again she was faced with others from her Borg protégé, even if that was by choice.

He entered Astrometrics and found it as jarring a space as ever. Undoubtedly impressive, spectacularly so, but impressive in the daunting way a Borg Cube was. Seven certainly hadn't softened her sense of limited sense of aesthetics in the place. In fact, her own persona reflected her domain. The perfectly moulded body in the strict suit, the hair that lay like a polished helmet, everything about her was stark and focused. She was also strikingly beautiful, stunning in both the best and worst meanings of the word. No, he couldn't consider her truly beautiful in the real sense until the woman stepped out of the drone's long shadow. That wasn't going to be today. The only concession she'd made to the deuterium shortage was turning off the overhead lights, the wall of stubbornly illuminated consoles cast an eerie on her intent face as she moved from one to the other.

"What's going on here?" he demanded as he marched across the room to her.

"I'm working." Seven replied without showing the courtesy of looking up from said work. She also gave no indication of whether she was deliberately back talking or if the rhetorical nature of his opening volley had just soared over her head.

"You were ordered to shut down Astrometrics an hour ago." Chakotay reminded her tersely, dogging her steps as she shifted to yet another console until his chest nearly brushed her shoulder as he frowned at her, "We can't afford the power." She ignored him, smoothly copying information from a console into a PADD rather than replying. "Seven, it's inefficient!" he pointed out impatiently, in a state of disbelief that he had to have _this _particular argument with her.

Seven's brow started to furrow tiredly, with equal impatience, but she caught herself and smoothed it out before the Commander would catch the expression. Did he really think she had so simplistic a grasp of efficiency? She was Borg! "Efficiency is relative Commander." She explained as she again moved down the wall of consoles away from him, "If I shut down Astrometrics, I won't be able to scan for new fuel sources."

Again he followed her, standing right over her shoulder until she could faintly feel his breath on the back of her neck. It seemed to be an engrained convention in humanoids, that physical proximity equalled power, in this case the proximity was a pressure tool to intimidate her into conceding. Commander Chakotay was not the first to be under the mistaken impression that this tactic was effective on her. In fact, she didn't think he'd used it before now. At least his breath was inoffensive. Lieutenant Johnson had had an extreme case of halitosis before she'd informed him of it as an affected third party. The Captain had been inexplicably upset by that action, going to great lengths to explain that speaking of such an issue violated societal norms of some sort. She vaguely remembered now that the Commander had been present during that explanation; that she'd been able to see that he was struggling not to laugh had dulled the importance of that particular correction by the Captain. That instance was far from the most scandalised she'd seen Captain Janeway, she'd repeated the vital nature of modesty, and the absolute rule that she had to lock Cargo Bay Two's door when changing biosuits, after Ensign Tabor had walked in on her one morning. The Borg had no concept of modesty of course, nor did they pay any heed to nudity for that matter, but she'd understood that rule better than the former. How was Lieutenant Johnson supposed to take corrective measures in his oral health regime if no one advised him it was essential?

"I appreciate your efforts…" It appeared the Commander was changing tact, "…but we'll have to use conventional scanners until…" He was interrupted by an insistent beeping Seven recognised as emanating from the lab's central console.

She obeyed the sound immediately and looked down at the readings with Chakotay still moving directly in her wake. "Conventional scanners would not have found this."

"What?" Chakotay asked shortly, irritated.

"Highly concentrated deuterium."

"Where?" Chakotay pressed, relief burying his irritation even as he had to prompt her for more information.

"Computer, display source." Seven instructed. At once Astrometrics' screen, a stretched hemisphere, zoomed in on a small, angrily red, planet. "A planetoid 0.4 lightyears from our present position. "There are dense pockets of deuterium just below the surface."

"Maybe so." Chakotay allowed himself a regretful sigh, "But that's a Demon-class planet."

Seven turned her gaze on him fully for the first time since he'd entered, "Demon-class?" she echoed. She doubted she'd ever understand the human habit of attaching metaphorical monikers to inanimate objects, but she was more disturbed by the fact that she had no idea what he was talking about.

Chakotay gave an affirmative nod, "That's what Starfleet calls it. Also known as Class-Y." He glanced up at the screen again, "It's got a toxic atmosphere, filled with thermionic radiation. Surface temperatures are in excess of 500 kelvins. Just _entering _a standard orbit would be suicide."

Seven turned her head again to lock his gaze with her frank, piercing eyes. "Our situation is desperate."

"True…" Chakotay admitted.

"When faced with desperate circumstances…" Seven set her mouth into a grim line as she too looked at the screen again, her nimble fingers already dialling in scenarios as part of her mind jumped ahead of this conversation, "…we must adapt."

Chakotay studied her for a moment, rather than the screen. "I guess you'd know all about that." He said quietly.

Seven's eyes widened for a split second before she gave him a long, speculative look that mirrored exactly what he'd given her. "Yes." She answered simply.

"I'll inform the Captain of what you've found." Chakotay told her, hotfooting to more comfortable ground. He hardly waited for her nod before leaving to do just that.

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><p><strong>An: Please review. :) At least one more chapter to come! **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/n: I do not own Star Trek: Voyager.**

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><p>"Chakotay!" Chakotay felt his shoulders bunch with tension as he heard B'Elanna's anxiously hopeful, expectant voice ringing out behind him. Unconsciously, he picked up his pace down the corridor. He already knew what she was going to ask him, and he wished he could've avoided giving the answer.<p>

B'Elanna ignored the slight. She was normally so perceptive where Chakotay was concerned, but she was too focused on her goal to think beyond following him. She launched into conversation as she trotted after him, almost breathless as she fought pent up emotion and Chakotay's deliberately long strides. "You're going out to look for them, aren't you?"

"That's right." Chakotay confirmed, keeping his eyes ahead, his manner cool and controlled, even as B'Elanna's gaze, in contrast, didn't waver from his face.

"Take me with you." Her voice was soft, convincing. That made it harder. He couldn't exactly claim she was hysterical. The confidence in her tone hurt, she trusted him not to refuse her, to take her feelings into account. He knew she wouldn't see that he was protecting her, that by denying her now he wasn't trying to diminish her relationship with Tom or her friendship with Harry, but saving her from the all too likely scenario that this away mission would only find their bodies, the demon planet already eating at their flesh.

"I can't do that B'Elanna, you're needed here to complete the repairs." That was true and he would stick to it, but guilt still stirred within him, he was palming her off. Who was he, really, to decide that she shouldn't see this through to the end? Because Tom wouldn't want her to see it, and neither did he.

B'Elanna, of course, had pre-empted that reply. "I've already handed out assignments, Vorik's on top of it." She assured him at once. Chakotay couldn't quite bite back a sigh, couldn't she realise it was more than the state of Engineering he was worried about? B'Elanna must've heard the sigh, because her tone became even more empathic, the expression of her intentions all the more straightforward. That part of her personality was something he liked about her, he always knew where he stood with B'Elanna, but the bluntness of her next statement was a real blow. "I want to help you find them."

Chakotay had to kill that false hope, stone dead if he could. "Look…" He finally stopped in his tracks and faced her full on, "I know you're concerned about Tom and Harry, we all are." His mouth twisted awkwardly around the next assurance, "I'll have them back safe and sound in no time."

B'Elanna grimaced, giving him a glimpse of teeth slightly sharpened by her Klingon genes, as she briefly glanced away, as if ashamed of him. "Don't patronise me." She advised him sharply, her expressive hands flying up between them, now putting up a barrier where a few seconds ago she'd been emphasising their closeness, their friendship, in every movement. "We both know how dangerous that environment is. They could be in serious trouble."

"You're right." Chakotay agreed, seeing that the softly-softly approach wasn't going to work with B'Elanna, not that it ever really had. "I don't know what I'm going to find." He admitted grimly as he turned away from her and started back down the corridor, "That's why I need cool heads."

B'Elanna stared at his retreating back for a moment, wide-eyed, before she hotly pursued him. "You think I can't control myself?" The lightly dozing creature that was her anger had been roused, but disbelief, and yes, hurt, dominated that strangled exclamation. She wasn't used to Chakotay throwing such aspersions at her, he was one of the very few people in her life who'd never judged her.

Chakotay skirted that accusation. "I think you're too close to this." He replied tightly.

"You're damn right I am!" B'Elanna spat out as she seized his elbow, forcing him to face her again, to stare into her dark, disillusioned, reproachful eyes. "If someone you loved was missing on this planet, you'd be the first one out that door and you know it!"

Chakotay saw something in that flash in her eyes, the memory of Seska. She'd defended him, had been his advocate, when he'd followed Seska, even if that had been the flipside of her love for Tom, dark, brooding, resentful… She'd taken his side then and that gaze, or maybe his own conscience, was demanding he acknowledge that. A twinge of horrified, jaded sadness struck him as he realised that, rightly as B'Elanna might've understood his character, he hadn't loved anyone like that in a long time, perhaps never. He swallowed as he pulled a response from somewhere, "B'Elanna, the clock is ticking." He took a step back from her as he slipped fully back into the First Officer detachment which he sometimes feared was becoming more natural to assume that his 'real' personality. "Do your job and let me do mine."

"Do me a favour." B'Elanna said sharply as she was met with his back again.

Chakotay's eyes were steady now, his guard slipping as he turned to her one final time. "What?"

"Take Seven of Nine with you."

Chakotay recoiled a little, unable to stop a flinch passing over his face as if she'd slapped him. He blinked disconcertedly as realisation slowly dawned that his old friend as coldly serious. "_You're _recommending _her_?"

B'Elanna tilted her head at him, the shadow of a grim smirk cast over her hardened face as she regarded him a little too knowingly. "You said you needed cool heads, didn't you? Nobody's head is cooler than hers."

Chakotay's first impulse was to yell at her to grow up. This was her way at getting back at him, throwing Seven of Nine in his face. He knew she realised how conflicted he felt about the 'ex' drone. Hadn't he let her blow off steam about Seven nearly every time they combated in Engineering? Of course, he kept his concessions as to understanding her frustrations and fears general, had never quite admitted he empathised, but B'Elanna could be very astute. She'd seen the aftermath of the link, knew almost every gory detail about Seska and Riley, it hadn't taken long to put two and two together, even if Chakotay had managed to keep his true feelings as well shielded as always. He might not be as open and obvious about his distrust of Seven as she was, but despite, or because of that, the feeling was much more deep-seated in him. However, as he was stumped into silence by the very idea, Chakotay had to admit that she was in essence right. Seven of Nine did possess the temperament he required for this mission, whether he liked that thought or not. He also disliked that intolerant, irrational part of himself enough to want to suppress it like he couldn't suppress the heart-breaking snatches of memory he'd stolen from the child Annika Hansen. "Alright." He agreed quietly.

B'Elanna's head dropped and she began blinking rapidly. That Chakotay would actually agree to that request cemented in her mind how serious all this was. "And bring them back safe." She added thickly.

Chakotay's face softened in understanding. "I will." He replied resolutely.

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><p>The Commander had an emotional response to her arrival, that much at least Seven could ascertain. A tightening of the jaw muscles, slight clenching of the fists, narrowing of the eyes. All signs, she knew, but not enough to read fluently what emotions he was experiencing. Frustration. Yes, well their situation was desperate, and beyond that it seemed a constant aspect of his character, with her, with the Captain, with himself. Wariness. He shared that with the rest of the crew, except the Captain and the Doctor, who with their curiosity, bravado and morality that went beyond good judgement. She theoretically understood why they'd saved her, and gratitude for that wore away at her resentment with each passing day, but she doubted she'd ever truly absorb the impact of it. Commander Chakotay's distrust was easier to relate to than stubborn, destructive compassion, but that didn't mean she knew how to defuse it any more than she knew how to restrain the Captain's expectations for her humanity that oppressed her as much as offering a goal. He was surprised too. That was the strongest emotion that had passed over his strong, well-structured face as she entered, and she couldn't grasp the reason for it. After all, he'd ordered her to report here. "I brought a test kit to retrieve a sample of the planet's deuterium." She announced, gripping the handle of the container tightly as she saw his dark eyes spark with another unpredictable flare of emotion before he snuffed it out.<p>

Couldn't she have asked about Tom and Harry first? She just wants to keep her lab running. The angry thoughts burned through Chakotay's mind but were rapidly smothered by rational answers as he saw that Seven's expression, though cool and stoic, didn't have a hint of provoking cruelty. He may have limited his contact with the woman, but he knew she wasn't capable of that. Probably less capable of it than he was. She wasn't ignoring the fact that their search for Tom and Harry on purpose, just being methodical, pragmatic. It was true that they needed a deuterium sample, and if they found Tom and Harry, he doubted anyone would risk going out there a third time. "Good." He said stiffly as he started to climb into one of the spacesuits that were prepared within this large airlock. He glanced up at her as she didn't move, just studying him, then stepped forward and gathered up a suit for her own use. "Aren't you going to ask why I requested you for this mission?" he asked uneasily, all the while knowing that he didn't want to give her the answer and cursing his mouth. Her apparent acceptance of his manner, of his distrust, actually saddened him. He would've preferred it if she just confronted him about it, either asked him to extend her some trust or just suck it up. It would've cleared the air at least, but she never had, had never even given the impression that the idea had occurred to her.

Seven arched a brow mildly, the expression magnified and distorted by the visor of the helmet she'd just donned. "I assumed you decided that I was the most qualified for this mission."

Chakotay almost managed to smile at her then, she was better at reading others than he gave her credit for. She was probably used to giving her crewmates an escape route when they felt awkward with her. "Yes, you are." He replied firmly as he gave the heavy suit one last tug and secured it to his body.

Seven flexed her hand inside the glove of her own suit, not relishing how clumsy the protective material made any movement feel. Beads of sweat were already forming on her skin. She hadn't tried to walk yet, and saw the wisdom in that when she saw Chakotay take a clunky step, then another, on his way to open the doors that would leave them exposed to the whims of this 'demonic' planet. She could only hope that they would have no cause to run, because it seemed like a near impossibility in these suits. Then there was their design. She'd already noted several places where it could be reconfigured for efficiency, to preserve oxygen and heat, but then those would make them even more uncomfortable, and right now she couldn't bring herself to call comfort irrelevant. Still, there were too many areas vulnerable to compromising under the bite of this atmosphere… Stopping that train of thought in its tracks, her mind instead latched onto the most irreverent thoughts about these suits, their appearance. Commander Chakotay looked like… What had been those sugary delicacies Lieutenant Paris had convinced her to try? Marshmallows. Yes, the Commander looked like a walking marshmallow, and no doubt she did too. The texture had been so strange, she'd lost some dignity not knowing how to eat them, but Tom and Harry had just laughed it off and taken a mouthful each themselves to demonstrate. Anxiety snaked around her heart and stomach and squeezed, _hard_. Those two men…her friends, were in life-threatening danger. She'd grown used to fighting fear, but not the fact that fear for others was more difficult to ignore.

She breathed a tight sigh and Chakotay glanced over at her, having noticed her intent, unreadable gaze focused on the spacesuits. "You've never worn anything like these…" He realised, "Would Borg drones be able to…adapt to this planet's environment?"

"To a limited degree, yes." Seven answered carefully, glad to redirect her thoughts from Tom and Harry's probable fate. "A drone's inbuilt shielding capacity would protect both organic and cybernetic components for some time, then implants would keep the drone minimally functional beyond that, but eventually this atmosphere would corrode anything. If the Borg had any reason to visit this planet, which in all likelihood they would not, then drones could survive on the surface for several hours unprotected."

"Well, we're going to be out there for less than one hour, we'll be fine." Chakotay reassured her with a weary but real smile, "They dedicated more time at the Academy to explaining to everyone why these suits were perfectly safe."

"Yes." Seven replied smoothly, somewhat managing her trademark tilt of the head inside the suit as she watched the mist of Chakotay's heavy breathing could his visor. "And yet you are still apprehensive."

Chakotay stiffened momentarily, then grimly met her gaze. "You should know the odds better than anyone." He told her bluntly, finding a bleak sense of relief in the capacity to be wholly honest with her, knowing she wouldn't flinch.

Seven didn't disappoint, she hardly even blinked, though her voice was quiet, even morose, as she agreed. "Indeed." Bending to pick up her test kit and tricorder, she marched to his side so that they were standing shoulder to shoulder, ready to step out onto the dreaded planet's surface. "But I have also calculated the search perimeter to the maximum possible, we will find them Commander."

Chakotay briefly locked eyes with her as he dialled in the commands to open the airlock, and nodded with equal determination. "Then let's get going."

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><p><strong>An: Please review. :)**


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